Preservationists guard against vandals

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COSTA MESA The summer heat penetrated the cramped one-story Costa Mesa Historical Society building as volunteers tried to craft an exhibit on local American Indians.

For some reason, they kept losing the air conditioning. City maintenance workers refilled the Freon tanks time and again.

Then someone realized people were sleeping in the air-conditioning pen outside and were “huffing,” or inhaling, the Freon to get high. Workers soon locked the Freon valves, and the volunteers have been cool ever since.

Historical Society regulars say this is nothing unusual. After two fires, a break-in and countless disturbances, they pleaded for officials to protect the publicly owned building. The city has spent about $150,000 on improvements, including fire-resistant siding and decks, and construction has begun on a wrought-iron fence.

The protections illustrate one of the city's issues with the homeless in its Lions Park complex: how to strike a balance between order and the rights of homeless people to use a public park.

“They should realize that some of their peers have abused the privilege of enjoying a public space by putting it at risk of being damaged or burned,” said Councilwoman Wendy Leece. “We're tired of it being vandalized in any way. We're taking back our park.”

The Historical Society sits across Anaheim Street from the Lighthouse church, which serves the homeless breakfast and offers hot showers. It is also about a 10-minute bike ride from Share Our Selves, a nonprofit clinic that provides medical and dental care, and Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, which serves lunch.

Lions Park has some amenities, too. It is a 10-acre municipal facility with a library, community center and pool. Homeless people relax on lawns and spend their days surfing the Internet on library computers.

One of the lead volunteers is 70-year-old Art Goddard. His desk faces a lawn, and a metallic film lines the windows, intended to protect documents inside from sun rays. It makes a one-way mirror, though, and Goddard says he sees some sexual scenes he would rather not.

Some of the problems are more serious. Goddard found remnants of a small fire on the wooden deck by the entrance, and someone torched a plastic window screen.

In 2009, the city replaced all of the building's siding and decks with fire-resistant plastic, a project that cost $50,000. Now, the city is building the 6-foot-tall fence around the building, a $60,000 project that requires rearranging a sidewalk and removing a large pepper tree.

“We're doing it to protect the collection, to protect the history for the citizens of Costa Mesa,” said Goddard, whose wife also volunteers there.

But he regrets that the city has to spend this money and that volunteers will soon “be walled off from the community we're trying to serve.”

While Goddard can't say that all of the nuisances come from homeless people, he has watched the same park-goers return day and night, sleeping on or near the building's decks. A retired engineer, Goddard recorded all of his encounters over nine months in a log. He showed some entries to the city's Homeless Taskforce, which reviewed them in 2011. Leece, the task force liaison, demanded action.

Some top officials visited Labor Day weekend, and the scene wasn't pretty. Goddard said they found human feces on a walkway near the building. They began planning the fence.

Until it is finished, the homeless can sprawl out on the building's lawns.

Goddard called police in September when a man was sleeping on the deck in front of his office; the society has “no trespassing” signs. He turned out to be a sex offender, and police arrested him for entering a park. It was the first arrest under Costa Mesa's sex-offender ban.

The threat was even more tangible when someone broke into the building one night by smashing an 8-foot-tall window pane on the front door. The person didn't steal anything but left a jacket inside. After that, the society installed a security camera.

Another time, the city installed 400-watt floodlights around the building.

Goddard compared the building modifications to a prison's features, except instead of keeping inmates inside, officials are trying to keep homeless people out. “We've had to harden the target,” he said.

Indeed, some homeless people feel the city is treating them like the enemy.

“Where does it stop, if they continue to fortify it?” said Joanne Livingston, 62, a homeless woman who likes to rest in the park and read.

Goddard says the Historical Society has considered moving, but because of budget constraints will try the fence first. If the volunteers still feel threatened, irreplaceable objects may be moved off site.

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